On Thursday 5 October, a source close to the issue at the European Commission said that alongside the entry into force (expected in February) of the new methodology for calculating the EU’s anti-dumping taxes, the Commission intends to publish “at that time”, an initial country-report on market distortions resulting from significant state interference, which will involve China.
“We are still working on this. The report will describe the country’s economy and will provide an in-depth analysis of the sectors where we have a lot of anti-dumping investigations”, the source said.
There are currently 22 investigations underway involving China. The Commission does not at this stage have other country reports up its sleeve on market distortions in third countries but it does not rule out working on such reports involving other countries in the future, the same source added, stating that "the lack of report on a given country does not mean that EU producers cannot speak out against market distortions in this country".
On Tuesday 3 October, the EU Council, European Parliament and Commission concluded an inter-institutional agreement in principle on the new methodology for calculating EU anti-dumping duties. This aims to respond to the unfair trade practices of third countries, headed by China, in which state interference at the level of the economy is significant.
The EU's new anti-dumping methodology aims in particular at settling the issue of how to treat China in EU anti-dumping investigations now that the arrangements on this have expired (in December 2016) in China's WTO accession protocol (see EUROPE 11875). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)